1. All the president's men (Alan J. Pakula)
Based on the best-selling book of the same name, Alan J. Pakula's film details the investigation carried out by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) into United States President Richard Nixon.
Pakula's film balances a labyrinthine story with suspense perfectly built around the plot. Screenwriter Williams Goldman and actor Jason Robards, masterfully playing Ben Bradlee, won their well-deserved Oscars. For their part, Redford and Hoffman shine fantastically, as they usually do.
2. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
One of Brian De Palma's (and blood-soaked) masterpieces, it was one of the first results of the new generation dedicated to horror movies. Highly stylized, with unforgettable scenes even making use of split-screen compositions, the story is kept wonderfully balanced by young Sissy Spacek's impressive performance work as a shy teenager who unleashes her telekinetic powers on cruel peers. her. Piper Laurie is magnificent as Carrie's mother from hell, while John Travolta and Nancy Allen suffer the tormented protagonist's revenge firsthand.
3. The empire of the senses (Nagisa Oshima)
It would be impossible to talk about 1976 without mentioning Nagisa Oshima's s- explicit taboo film. Based on the true story of the relationship between a former girl and a hotel manager, the film features sequences of real and explicit s-. The mere idea of the film itself horrified the Japanese authorities so Oshima's work had to be smuggled out of the country, ending production in France. It continues to be a daring film that is censored or offered cuts in many countries.
4. Network. An Unforgiving World (Sidney Lumet)
Peter Finch won the posthumous Oscar for his unbeatable performance as Howard Beale, an alcoholic newscaster turned media messiah of doom. The character is cleverly satirized by director Sidney Lumet in his quest to represent the political and social ennui of 1970s America. One of the most memorable scenes in cinema will remain in the memory with that phrase in a loop: "I'm more than fed up and I don't want to keep putting up with it", a whole hymn to freedom of expression. Faye Dunaway won the Oscar for her magnificent performance as the shallow executive who sees in everything around her only commercial value.
5. Rocky (John G. Avildsen)
John G. Avildsen's legendary film is about how a loser (Sylvester Stallone) manages to succeed by following his own heart and achieving the great American dream. Then it exceeded all expectations and became the most important title of 1976, winning the Oscar for best film of that year, as well as the statuettes for best direction for Avildsen and for best editing.
6. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
Scorsese's journey through a lonely, dark heart cemented his position as the most fascinating director of his generation. His psychodrama tells the story of former Marine Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), now a taxi driver, and the suffering of the inner struggle against his increasingly deranged and violent character. Bickle becomes lovingly obsessed with a political volunteer (Cybil Shepherd) and filially obsessed with a teenage prostitute (Jodie Foster) whom he tries to persuade to leave this dangerous world. Surprisingly, Taxi Driver didn't win any Oscars, but Europe was kinder to the brilliant film: the film took top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or.
